RoboCop 2
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DVD details
Actor: Belinda Bauer, John Glover, John Ingle, Leeza Gibbons, Mario MachadoBrand: WELLER,PETER
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 117 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-06-08
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
DVD Reviews of RoboCop 2
DVD Review: Buy another Verhoeven film instead.
Summary: 1 Stars
My advice to anyone who, having seen Robocop, is looking for a decent follow-up - look for something else by Verhoeven. Total Recall, perhaps, which stars the bloke who played Dick Jones in a similar role and is similarly interesting, OTT and makes you think. Why shouldn't you bother with R2? Well, let's see...
On paper there should be no reason to slate this film. Decent director? Check. Commentary on society? Check. Continuation of the themes from the first movie, same kinda tone? Check. It was based on a Frank Miller screenplay, for heaven's sake, and most of the cast from original returned. Should've been enough to liberate R2 from bad-sequel-syndrome...
The first act of the film sounds promising. Murphy/Robocop's confusion over his humanity and his place with his family (established at the end of R1) is continued, and in an emotionally effective way. Detroit has sunk into drug addiction, the police force is on strike due to poor treatment at the hands of OCP (both hinted at in the first film); the theme of societal collapse and corporate responsibility are effectively played out. Representative scenes include the brutal mugging of an addict in the first few second of the movie, a drug-peddling 12-year old and his spaced-out drug-lord boss. Who, it quickly turns out, is far more sadistic than Boddicker and co from R1; Cain, R2's villain, and Hobb, his young apprentice, represent the film's narrative progression and social commentary better than anything. The first film had a bunch of gun-toting criminals who camped out in a derelict steel mill; these guys have their own drug lab, they've got cops on the take, and (concluding act 1) they get to Murphy in an almost terminal way.
Sounds pretty promising, right? Well, it's not. The problem with the first act is the way it's presented. Everyone comments on how violent this film is; it's violent, yeah, but then so are Commando and Friday 13th. So are Saw and Hostel. The difference is that director Kershner seems to take a perverse and sadistic pleasure in the suffering of the characters - it's not enough, for example, that Robocop gets graphically cut to pieces by industrial tools; we then have to endure several close-ups and drawn-out scenes of his dismembered torso stammering and shaking like it's undergoing a seizure.
The sadism culminates in an all-too-long scene where the drug lord and his gang strap a cop to a medical table, verbally scare him for a few minutes then watch while he's cut open with a scalpel. Kershner, however, doesn't stop there. We get an overhead view of the operating table! We get to hear the guy screaming in agony! For a long time! Wow! Unbelievably, this scene as it appears on DVD, is actually the toned down version; there's an extended version with more screaming and more sadism. I defy anyone who isn't some form of pituary retard to watch this scene and not feel at least mildly disgusted.
Urotsukidoji (a Jap anime) had a scene that was so dodgy the British censors trimmed it with the words "If this had been live action, we would've handed the footage to the police." Similarly, I cannot believe no-one's questioned Kershner's mental state after R2.
OK, so today something like Hostel can get released and a dozen single guys will watch it in their psychosis-breeding bedrooms and worship it. The same guys are probably reading this now and getting unnaturally excited about R2 (if they haven't already gone to check out Urotsukidoji - "Why would we if it's cut?!") Hostel, however, is packaged as the kind of exploitive snuff trash that it is, and only someone's who's insanely bored would watch it. R2 is a continuation of a decent film; it has plots, characters and themes to deal with and it doesn't. The first film worked because the violence was (a) necessary to the plot, and (b) either self-consciously OTT or making a point. R2 is just sadistically violent. Maybe it's just me, but I can't see why anyone would like watching this stuff.
After this, the film degenerates into fantasy. There's some clap-trap involving a bigger robot. There's a big "exciting" chase scene which features Robo riding a Harley (derelict, dystopian Detroit...a Harley...sure...) in a game of chicken. Chicken?! But wait, it gets worse...there's Robocop's reprogramming - a pathetic and misguided attempt at comedy that's totally out of place. The ending is atrociously bad and all the themes set up in first act are completely abandoned.
You could just about make the case that, in it's (albeit twisted) presentation of extreme urban and moral decay, Robocop 2 is a good commentary on our times; there are certainly plenty of equally sadistic crimes that're becoming more commonplace nowadays.
But there're other films with similar commentaries that are at least compelling, convincing and don't collapse into absurdity after 45 minutes. And why would you want to watch a load of graphic torture, violent 12 yr olds and muggings anyway? Watch the news instead.
So overall I'd give this film 1 star for almost developing the first film, and for not being Robocop 3. Please, spare your wallet and your good memories of the first film, and avoid. Unless, of course, you're a buck-toothed moron who's bored of Hostel, wants something worse, and thinks Urotsukidoji sounds too tame.
Description of RoboCop 2
No Description Available.Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 8-JUN-2004
Media Type: DVD
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